Update: Truck protest passes through Skaneateles where crowds gathered to watch, many cheering for them

John Berry / The Post-StandardNew York state Trooper Mike Walser from Troop D, Oneida, directs trucks along Genesee Street in Skaneateles as truck drivers stage a protest against regulations that would limit their use of smaller highways in the state.

Update from Skaneateles at 1:30 p.m.:

The last of the truck convoy passed through the village shortly before 1:30 p.m. today.

John Berry / The Post-StandardJohn Jackson, of Groton, NY, supports truck drivers as they stage a protest along Genesee Street in Skaneateles. He drove a truck for 48 years, and for 14 years he drove through Skaneateles two or four times a day delivering Genesee beer out of Rochester.

It took the trucks about 45 minutes to pass through the lakeside village. Traffic did back up on Route 20 as the truckers drove through.

So many people lined the streets on both side through the village that it was hard to walk through the crowd. The mood along East Genesee Street was more festive, than protest.

Many in the crowd appeared to support the truckers, cheering and waving signs. Children were jumping up and down when the trucks blew their horns. People were taking photographs and videos as the trucks passed.

Many crowding the streets were also shopping at the stores in the village before and after the protest.

Submitted photoA trucker is arrested on the Arterial in Auburn at about noon Friday.

As the lead trucks in the convoy were passing through downtown, the last of the trucks were reported to be passing the Fingerlakes Mall, just west of the city line in Aurelius.

Truckers were turning from the Arterial onto John Street, and then onto East Genesee Street -- which is also Route 20 -- for the last leg of the trip to Skaneateles.

The truckers left the Petro truck stop, near the Thruway's Exit 41 in Waterloo, about 10 a.m.

John Stith / The Post-StandardTruckers pass through Auburn about noon today on their way to Skaneateles. The truckers are protesting plans to restrict truck traffic on Upstate roads.

Earlier: A long line trucks began passing the Fingerlakes Mall, just west of Auburn, about 11:15 a.m. Many of the trucks honked horns, but they seemed to be obeying traffic signals.

The trucks are headed east to Skaneateles via Route 20.

Hundreds of big trucks left the Petro truck stop at Exit 41 in Waterloo this morning en route to Skaneateles to protest plans to ban trucks from traveling local roads in the Finger Lakes region.

Protest organizer Charlie Clayburn, northeast regional director for Truckers and Citizens United, didn't have an exact count, but he estimated there were "a lot more" than 200 trucks ready to roll at 9:30 a.m.

By 10:15 a.m., the head of the convoy had reached Routes 5&20 in Seneca Falls, he said, and trucks were strung back along Route 414 and 318 to the truck stop. Clayburn said state police had shut down the traffic lights on Routes 414 and 318.

Cayuga County sheriff's deputies and Auburn city police were planning to monitor the convoy through Cayuga County. Both Sheriff David S. Gould and Police Chief Gary J. Giannotta said they expected truckers to obey all traffic laws, including stop signs and traffic lights.

"They have to follow the traffic laws like anybody else," Gould said.

Giannotta echoed that sentiment.

They're supposed to obey all the traffic rules ... I really don't expect anything out of the ordinary," he said. "As long as they obey all the traffic laws, we shouldn't have an issue."

Neither law enforcement agency planned to escort the truck convoy.

Before the start of the convoy, protest organizers advised truckers to stop if one truck in the convoy is stopped for any reason.

The trucks will follow Route 20 through Skaneateles and on to Interstate 81 in Tully. There was talk among truckers at the Petro truck stop that they might turn on Route 175, turn on Rickard Road, then turn back on Route 20 to head back through the village.

"I don't think that's going to happen," Clayburn said. "If police act they way they said they would, we're not stopping. We'll go right on to 81."